By John Ikani
The jail sentences handed down to Nigerian Emeka Obi and Italian Gianluca Di Nardo, for their part in a graft case involving Eni and Shell in Nigeria have been overturned by an Italian appeals court.
Three judges In a decision taken behind closed doors but read out to reporters afterward quashed the convictions and said there was no case to answer.
Prayer for the sentences to be overturned was filed by prosecution after a court in March acquitted the two energy groups in a long-running case revolving around the acquisition of a Nigerian oilfield for about $1.3 billion.
Obi and Di Nardo, both accused of being middlemen and taking illegal kickbacks, were convicted in a fast-track trial back in 2018 separate from the main one.
They were both sentenced to four years in jail but had not started to serve them.
Under Italian law a fast-track trial, which is based only on documents with no hearings or witnesses, allows sentences to be cut by a third.
“An unjust sentence by the court of first instance conditioned by a macroscopic violation of the law,” Obi’s lawyer Roberto Pisano said, referring to the original conviction.
